The UK is providing money to help two species of vulture in south Asia whose rapid decline has alarmed conservationists.

In some areas numbers have fallen by over 90% in under 10 years. Birds in Pakistan and Nepal are increasingly affected, and scientists fear others in Europe and Africa could also succumb.

And there is growing concern over the implications for human health.

Under the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species, the UK Government will pay
£148,000 over three years to try to find what is affecting the two species, the white-backed and long-billed vultures.

The initiative seeks to safeguard the world's biodiversity by drawing on
British expertise to help countries rich in biodiversity, but poor financially.

British organisations

Three British organisations and one in India will work together to
spend the money.

It is getting
progressively worse. There is no apparent recovery,
and the problem is spreading

Dr Debbie
Pain RSPB

They are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Institute of Zoology, the National Birds of Prey Centre, and Bombay Natural
History Society (BNHS).

Scientists are almost certain the vultures are being affected by an unidentified
viral disease, and the money will pay for three people to work at a permanent unit in India trying to pinpoint the disease's cause.

It will also fund monitoring in the wild and the establishment of a captive care centre.

This will allow scientists to study the disease and possible ways of helping the
vultures to recover. It will also train workers who may be able to set up a captive breeding programme.

Characteristic sign

The RSPB's head of international research, Dr Debbie Pain, told BBC News Online: "The characteristic sign of an affected bird is one whose head is hanging almost down to its feet for long periods.

We've just heard from western Rajasthan, where there's a big dump that receives an average of 20 carcasses daily

Dr Debbie
Pain RSPB

"It's a syndrome that seems to be associated with this disease
and we are 98% certain it is a disease that is killing
the vultures, because other possible causes, like
pesticides, are much more localised in their effects.

"We've just heard from western Rajasthan, where there's
a big dump that receives an average of 20 animal
carcasses daily.

"There are now large numbers of
Eurasian and Himalayan griffin vultures there, and we
think they've moved in because the white-backed and
long-billed vultures have all died."

Worsening situation

An India-wide survey last year by the BNHS found that the two
affected species had declined by 90% since the last
survey in 1992/93, and that in many places they had
disappeared altogether.

Most sick birds become lethargic and usually die within about a month of
symptoms developing.

The BNHS said that some vultures
in Pakistan and Nepal were also being affected, but
the situation in all three countries appears to have
deteriorated since then.

Dr Pain said: "It is getting
progressively worse. There is no apparent recovery,
and the problem is spreading.

"The number of sick birds
in Pakistan and Nepal is highest close to the Indian
frontier.

'Moving eastwards

"It looks as if it is moving westwards, and
that it might reach Europe and even Africa.

Where you used to see tens of thousands of
vultures at a carcase dump, now you might see
half-a-dozen.

Dr Andrew Cunningham, Institute of Zoology

"It affects vultures from the Gyps genus, and there are species of
Gyps vultures in France, Spain, and contiguous
populations all the way down to South Africa.

"And what's happening is not just a conservation problem.
It has implications for human health too.

"The Parsees dispose of their dead by putting the bodies out on
'towers of silence' for the vultures to eat, so as to
avoid polluting earth or water.

"So they face a major problem. At the carcass dump in Rajasthan there are
now more than a 1,000 feral dogs where there used to be vultures. So there is a growing threat from
rabies and other diseases."

Monitored sites

Dr Andrew Cunningham, of
the Institute of Zoology, has just returned from
India.

He told BBC News Online: "It's a huge problem.
The feral dog population is exploding, and people are
now having to protect themselves with sticks.

"The
disease is worse than it was six months ago: at some
of the nesting sites being monitored, there aren't any
nests.

"Where you used to see tens of thousands of
vultures at a carcass dump, now you might see
half-a-dozen.

"They're all dying of enteritis and
visceral gout, when their uric acid crystallises out
into all the internal organs. That finally does them
in.

"It's got to be an infectious agent: it's so
selective, attacking the Gyps birds. Four of the eight
vulture species found in India are apparently
unaffected.

"It's a mystery, but slow progress is being
made in India, and the Darwin Initiative grant should
help immensely."